Teaching your child to read can sometimes be a challenge—so let the Reading Game lend a hand! If your child likes to be read to, is familiar with letters, and shows interest in storytime by pretending to read or wants words pointed out while reading – then you are ready for this game. This award winning game is by Kenneth Hodkinson, the author of the Wordly Wise program. This game introduces children to 180 sight words and helps them memorize and remember those words through playing a simple memory game. The sight words found in this game are taken from the Dolch Word List for PK through 1st and from "100 most commonly used English words from the Reading Teacher's Book of Lists by Fry". This game can even be used in classroom or tutoring situations since it is written to meet Common Core Reading Standards for Literature and Informational Text for Kindergarten and 1st grades.

So, how easy is it? There are six readers that use 30 words each. There are 60 word cards (two of each word) that correspond to each book. Place ten cards (two each of five words that are listed in the Rules and Teacher's Guide) face down on the table. Two players take turns flipping the cards over until one gets a match. When a match is made, the player says the word several times in a clear voice. Do this until all five words have their match, then shuffle and play again. Play with the first set of five words until the child can read all five of them without difficulty. Repeat this same process with the next list of five words. Children are asked to read test sentences after every other word group in order to keep all the words fresh. After going through all 30 words, the child is then ready to read the story book. Follow this same procedure for the words for each of the six storybooks. Words from previous books are used along with new words in subsequent stories.

The six storybooks found in the game are very simple to read. They are all printed in lower case letters except for the "I" and there is no punctuation. Children will know that it is the end of a sentence simply because the line ends, and breaks between sentences indicate pauses. The Reading Game includes all six storybooks and six decks of corresponding word cards (60 each) along with a Rules and Teacher's Guide. Downloadable worksheets are available at the publisher's website (thereadinggame.com) – pre/post sight word assessments, test sentence worksheets, class recording sheets for the assessments and test sentences.

You will still want to do phonics and there is a short section of teacher's guide devoted to implementing phonics in with the material found in the game. Children will encounter sight words in everything they read, and this game will enable them to tackle some of that reading with more confidence. – Donna

Item #: 001486ISBN: 9780838824337
Retail: $11.70Rainbow Price: $8.75
The corresponding test booklet for this level is now out of print, however, Wordly Wise 3000 2nd Edition Test Book 6 (#14338) can be substituted for this one. We have looked at them side-by-side and have found no differences in the word lists used.

Item #: 000581ISBN: 9780838824368
Retail: $12.95Rainbow Price: $9.80
Wordly Wise 3000 2nd Edition Test Book 9 (#14348) can be used alongside this 1st Edition student book if necessary. We have compared the word lists side-by-side and have found no differences.

This unique game is great to play alone or in any size group, and all ages will enjoy the strategy and fun. It's composed of 24 specially notched metal rods that come in 6 bright colors and a base. Players take turns adding rods to other rods on the base's hook, trying not to knock the entire structure over. The patented U-shaped notches make for loose connections and the rods can easily pivot, so you have to consider wisely before placing your rods. You must think about physics, gravity, and balance because the entire structure can shift and traps can be set. The first to hang all of their pieces without knocking anything over is the winner.

Take on the role of chieftain of a clan competing to build the best land in this thoughtful game of buying and selling land. Aspects of this game are reminiscent of Carcassone, but the variability and mechanics of this game offer more strategy than the aforementioned. Whereas both games revolve around square tiles featuring different landscapes that have to be connected, Carcassone tiles are placed in a central map, while Isle of Skye players each build their own swath of land that scores them points. The main strategy in this game lies in the buying and selling of land tiles. At the beginning of each round (either 5-6 total, depending on the number of players), players receive their income based off of their current landscape, and then each player randomly draws three landscape tiles from the bag. Once everyone has drawn and all of the new tiles are visible, each player secretly chooses one of their three tiles to discard back into the bag and sets the prices for the other two from their money supply. You have to keep an eye on which tiles other players may want to buy from you to complement their landscape as well as which tiles will most benefit you. Setting prices too low means you wont profit much from the sale, but setting them too high may deter other buyers and cause you to spend more of your own money. Once everyone has set their prices, the player screens are moved so that the prices are revealed, and then players each have a turn to buy a tile from another player. If a player buys a tile from you, you receive your money back as well as the coins paid by the buyer. However, if no one buys your tiles, you pay the bank the price and may add the tile to your personal map, always connecting like landscape to like. As with most great games, there is a good balance between resources, causing you to choose your purchases wisely. The round closes with players scoring based on their current landscape. The scoring is an aspect that brings wonderful variability to the game players randomly select four of the 16 scoring tiles at the beginning of the game and set them in the middle of the scoring track in the spaces marked A, B, C, and D. For example, you may score victory points (VPs) for each sheep in your territory or if you are the player with the most gold. However, each round only scores a combination of the scoring tiles after Round 1, you score using the A and B tiles; after the fourth round you score based on the criteria of tiles A, C, and D. This makes all the scoring tiles important, but each at varying points of the game. At the start of each round players receive additional income based on their land and the land sales start all over again. After the final scoring, the chieftain with the best kingdom wins! Steph

Item #: 040707ISBN: 9781933339092
Retail: $17.95Rainbow Price: $11.35
Volume Two picks up where Story of the World Volume One left off, and it tells the fascinating story of the “Dark Ages,” from the fall of Rome through the Renaissance. This volume has been written very similarly to the other also, with a very readable text, appropriate for young children, told in a clear and engaging style. Each of the many chapters is relatively short, and broken up into smaller chunks that are the perfect length for curling up together and reading aloud. Also like the preceding book, this story of history doesn’t limit itself to a dry, white-bread-without-the-crusts retelling of a primarily European history, instead it is a rich, whole wheat blend of European, Indian, Chinese, Australian, Arabic, Japanese, Jewish, Mongolian, Turkish, African, Russian, and American history during the period, providing the young student with a much more complete view of what was going on all around the world during that intriguing time period. To cover every event in each of these diverse histories would take a whole library, however, and just as Susan Wise Bauer tells us in her first volume, use this volume as a springboard to more detailed readings about any events that you and the children find interesting and want to learn more about. A timeline and an index are included at the back.

Like its predecessor, the Activity Book corresponds chapter-by-chapter with the text from the Story of the World readings, and the sections and activities are well-organized and easy to implement. Each chapter begins with review questions for the book. Narration exercises are also included, so that the child may write or dictate to you a summary of what they learned. A list of books for additional reading follows, each with a concise summary and an approximate reading level to help you find those most appropriate for your child’s ability and interest. Corresponding literature, consisting of more "story-like" volumes such as cultural tales and myths are also featured to liven up your history reading, lending a little more interest to those lovers of fiction. An excellent range of activities follow the reading lists, including map work, a coloring page, and projects, which include art, crafts, games, and other more "involved" activities. An abundance of opportunities for "beyond-the-book" learning about here, but as the author mentioned in the activity book for Vol. 1, you should not feel pressured to read every book and complete every activity - history studied in this manner should be a fun and enjoyable journey for all involved, not an endless checklist of items you "have to" complete to pass a test. These courses lend themselves very well to family study, and a lot of the activities would be much more enjoyable with at least a couple siblings or friends. Fortunately, Susan Wise Bauer has anticipated this, and has denoted chosen activities with a "C" to highlight its use as a good co-op or classroom activity. All in all, this looks like an very well-rounded, extremely enjoyable, and solidly chronological approach to history

The text is available spiral-bound in the first edition or in paperback or hardcover in the revised version. the Activity Book is a bound paperback and is the revised version.